By Muhammad Amaan
The National Assembly on Thursday passed the ₦54.99trn 2025 Appropriation Bill.
The bill was passed separately by the Senate and the House of Representatives.
A breakdown of the budget showed N3.645trn for statutory transfers, N14.317trn for debt servicing, N13.64trn for recurrent expenditure and N23.963trn capital expenditure (development fund), with fiscal deficit put at N13.08trn.
The Deficit-to-Gross domestic product (GDP) Ratio was put at 1.52%.
Last Week, President Bola Tinubu increased the 2025 fiscal year budget from an initial N49.7trn to N54.2trn, seeking approval from the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Abubakar Bichi, while presenting the bill for consideration, stated that the committee met with the Presidential Economic Planning team to further discuss revenue projections and expenditure for the 2025 Appropriation Bill.
The bill was passed after a clause-by-clause consideration by the Committee of the Whole on Thursday.
The budget was passed after the House reverted to plenary and a voice vote put by the Speaker, Tajuddeen Abbas.
The passed budget reads, “A Bill for an Act to authorise the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation the total sum of N54,990,1 65,355, 396, of which N3,645,761,358,925 is for Statutory Transfers.
“N14,317.142,689,548 is for Debt Service, N13,064,009,682,673 is for Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure.
“The sum of N23,963, 251,624,250is for contribution to the |Development Fund for Capital Expenditure for the year ending on the 31 December, 2025.”
According to him, the 2025 Appropriation Bill was presented late, compared to that of 2024.
He urged the executive to present subsequent budgets to the National Assembly not later than three months before the next financial year, to maintain the January to December budget cycle.
